


patterns in static.

by aceface



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M, Singing, one direction - Freeform, x factor - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-21
Updated: 2010-12-21
Packaged: 2017-10-13 22:51:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/142596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aceface/pseuds/aceface
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>And now, the problem is that somehow Liam's ended up in Niall's body and the only reason he realises is when he stands up in the morning and Louis smiles at him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	patterns in static.

The thing is, Liam hadn't wanted to be Niall. Most of the time, he was quite happy just being himself -- he could sing well enough, and he was happy, most of the time. But it was all Louis' fault, like everything always was, and Liam hadn't wanted to be Niall, he'd just wanted Louis to look at him like that. And the thing with the cookie from the fan, was -- he hadn't  _known_ what it would do. And they'd all had the lecture about not eating anything that a fan gave them but he'd just been hungry and it was the only thing they had. No one else had wanted to eat it because it had their faces iced on, even if they weren't very good, but it was from Millie's Cookies so he'd thought it'd be okay.

It'd tasted a bit weird but Liam had been too tired to care (he doesn't remember the last time he  _wasn't_  tired, which is a bit sad, but at least the competition is nearly over and then maybe he can sleep for a week and besides, it's all worth it, really. Or it will be). And besides, half the stuff in the kitchen tasted weird most of the time so he'd just gone to bed and hoped that he wouldn't be sick in the morning, because food poisoning would really mess up their chances in the competition and he hates all that sob story stuff the X Factor people make them do. And then he'd thought about Louis, and the way he always looked straight at Niall to catch his reaction after making a joke, and that was it, really. That was where the problem was.

And  _now,_  the problem is that somehow Liam's ended up in Niall's body and the only reason he realises is when he stands up in the morning and Louis smiles at him. Which -- it's been nice, for a few seconds. And it's not that Louis's a complete wanker to him or anything, it's just that Liam's well aware he doesn't really register on Louis's radar, because he's not loud enough or funny enough and he has a moment of smiling back at Louis before Louis nods at Liam's own bed. 

"Lazy arse. Bet he'll be gutted that we were up before him," and it's all been normal and everything, because Liam's fallen asleep in the wrong bed before, they all have, except he glances over and notices that  _he is currently still asleep in his own bed_.

-

He manages to persuade Louis to go find Zayn and Harry -- it's weird, because Louis actually  _listens_  to him when he thinks it's Niall; he claps him on the back and heads downstairs. Liam's left half-waiting for Louis to come running back in, to be stubborn and purposely irritating like he always is with Liam, but apparently that's not how it works for Niall. (Liam makes a considerable effort not to be jealous and focuses instead on the problem at hand.) 

He's not sure how to wake Niall up -- surely it'd be too scary if he woke up and saw his own body crouched over him? -- but in the end he doesn't have to worry, because Niall (at least, that's who Liam's assuming it is because, shit, he really can't deal with any of their other band members swapped about) wakes up on his own. It's so, so  _weird_ , there's really no other word to describe seeing himself wake up, eyes scrunched and hair a mess -- even more so when whoever's in Liam's body pushes a hand through it, and Liam resists the urge to lean over and smooth it down himself.

"Um," he says, still not used to Niall's Irish accent escaping his mouth, "hi." He leans back against the bunk bed opposite, closing one eye and hoping the other person won't freak out. "Niall?"

"Yeah?" Niall (thank  _fuck_ ) says automatically, then frowns. "Mate, that was weird, I just -- shit." He sits up straight away, all traces of sleep gone, and all Liam can think inanely is  _does my hair always look like that at the back?_. It's stupid.

"So we've kind of somehow -- swapped bodies," Liam says, gesturing between them, and he doesn't add that it's his fault because that's something he can barely admit to himself. He fucked up, and that's bad, but he'll fix it. He will, and in the meantime he'll just calm Niall down and make sure he's not worried. There's no point in both of them being stressed; it'll only have a negative effect on their performance after all.

"Oh," says Niall, and yawns. Liam can't help feeling like this is a bit of an underreaction. "Okay." He catches Liam watching him and shrugs. "What? I'm on The X Factor, nothing's really normal anymore. And you'll sort it out, right?" He says it like it's obvious and it should be more pressure on Liam, but really, he's a little... surprised by the amount of trust Niall seems to have in him. Although it could be something to do with the fact that Niall's just woken up.

"I don't think we should tell anyone about this," Liam says, which, okay, it's weird watching his own face look so -- confused, almost. And he'd thought he'd be used to seeing his own face, because he watches the video diaries and he's seen more photos of himself in the past few months than he has before, ever, but -- not like this. 

"What?" Niall frowns, folding his arms across his chest ( _Liam's_  arms across  _Liam's_  chest, his brain says unhelpfully). "You're stupid. Of course we should, why wouldn't we?"

"Because Louis can't keep his mouth shut," Liam says, more sharply than he intends to. Niall blinks at him, a little taken aback, and Liam takes a few moments to breathe in and out and reminds himself that it's not Niall's fault, none of this is. "I just don't see how bringing more people into this would help. I'll sort this out and we'll be back to normal by tomorrow. Okay?"

Niall shrugs a shoulder ( _Liam's_  shoulder), and grins suddenly. "I guess it could be pretty cool, being you for a day."

Liam's sceptical -- it's entirely probable that Niall's completely overestimating what it's like to be Liam, but he's not going to argue if it keeps Niall happy. As long as he doesn't do anything irredeemable, it should be fine. "Just -- don't do anything suspicious, alright?"

Niall rolls his eyes, but he's still smiling and it looks weird. It's not like Liam never smiles but he doesn't usually look in the mirror when he does, and he knows that he tends to just look serious or bored a lot of the time. "I'm not going to ruin your life, mate, if that's what you're thinking."

"It wasn't." Liam stands up, stretching, and Niall watches him with a smirk, nodding at his boxers.

"Don't go peeking, yeah?"

"I have better things to do with my time," Liam says loftily, and makes a mental note to compare as soon as he can.

-

Practice is terrible, terrible, terrible. So bad, in fact, that Liam wants to cry a little bit (and he could too, if he wanted to, because it'd be Niall's reputation that got damaged and not his.) Liam isn't one of the dramatic ones by any stretch of the imagination -- he does enough in front of the cameras to get by, no matter how awkward he feels, and leaves the rest up to the others -- but he's struggling to see any way that they'll still be on the show next week if they can't get it together by Saturday. And this means that he and Niall need to do extra rehearsal, to get used to each others' voices, to get used to being on opposite sides of the choreography, and Liam's got no idea how he's going to fit that in as well as trying to fix this, as well as the video diary, as well as Question Time, as well as all the styling and costume fittings and everything else he has to do.

Louis hangs behind afterwards, waiting for him, and Liam's suddenly struck by the fact that now he's Niall he's going to be expected to socialise as well. Which isn't to say that he didn't before -- they  _are_  his friends, as much as he moans about them sometimes -- but it was more generally accepted that he liked to fuck off on his own sometimes. Niall never does that. "Fuck," Liam says, in spite of himself, and it makes him feel even worse hearing it in Niall's soft accent. 

"Language," says Louis, beaming down at him, and he sticks out his hand to help Liam to his feet. "You were a bit shite today, mate."

"Well, what can I say?" Liam says, automatically. "Didn't want to show the rest of you up." Niall's voice actually helps a little bit in turning Liam's dry humour into something more light-hearted, and he mentally thanks God, or whoever, that bodyswapping is ridiculous enough a concept that no one should suspect. 

"I'll have you know I'm an expert," Louis says, grinning at Liam and not letting go of his hand. "I should be giving the rest of you lessons." 

He starts swinging Liam's hand as they walk and Liam blurts out, "Oh, are we holding hands, now?" This is exactly why Louis  _doesn't_  joke around with Liam usually -- this, right here, is a perfect example. He doesn't just shut up and go along with stuff, like Zayn, and he's too boring to carry on the joke. He just -- acknowledges it and makes it awkward, but this time Louis squeezes his hand when he'd usually let go and says, "I'm stealing your energy and talent through your fingertips."

"Steal away, you need all of it you can get," Liam says, and even manages to grin at Louis when Louis gasps, pretending to be shocked. It's easier being Niall, somehow; he doesn't worry about Louis will think of him or if he's acting stupid, because Louis thinks he's Niall. And it's not that he'd want it to be like that all the time, not really, but it's kind of nice just for a few minutes. Just until he can sort things out properly.

Except it turns out that sorting things out is harder than Liam thought, things like body swaps due to a Millie's cookie bought for them by a weird fan anyway, because Googling it only turns up a few results. And they're mostly weird stories that people have written or episodes of  _Buffy_ , and nothing that's particularly helpful. And really, he hadn't thought of what to do if Google didn't help because -- well, he was born in the 90s, he doesn't really know how else to get information.

Still, he prints a list from Wikipedia all about the different movies that people have switched bodies in, and decides that the best thing to do would be to watch all of them. Because at least _one_  of them should have the answer, right?

-

The next two days are awful because he has no free time, like, at all, it's all rehearsal and interviews and smiling from the camera and he's even more glad that he's in Niall's body, because no one looks at him when serious questions are asked and he doesn't have to think. He can just rest his head on Louis's shoulder and laugh at his jokes and, okay, it's a little bit annoying that Niall clearly has no idea how to answer a proper question but -- it's kind of like a holiday from being himself, sometimes. Most of the time it's utter shit and Liam feels more stressed than ever before, but sometimes it can be... bearable. He still prefers being himself, though.

Anyway, this means that he has to watch his movies (in alphabetical order starting with  _All of Me_  which is the stupidest thing he's ever watched -- well, it's good in a good-movie kind of way, maybe, but not in a this-will-help-you-switch-your-body-back-with-your-bandmate's way, which is the kind of way he needs right now) really late, when everyone else is asleep. And he doesn't want to go down to the TV room in case someone comes in and wants to know why he's watching  _13 Going On 30_  or whatever, so he uses his laptop and hopes no one wakes up.

And it's  _stupid_ , because it's not doing much for his voice and he feels really bad about Niall, who (thankfully) is taking really good care of Liam's, but he really doesn't know what else he's supposed to do. Because he has to watch these movies because he has to turn them back, even if they don't win the competition (and if they don't, and it's Liam's fault, he'll probably just cry forever). 

Liam's lying on Niall's bed, trying to stay awake during  _Every Dog Has His Date_  (which, sadly, isn't even the worst movie he's watched recently about a guy switching places with his dog) when he just can't be bothered. It's too much and it's not even  _fair_ , he shouldn't have to deal with this, and he slams the laptop closed maybe a bit harder than he should -- especially considering that Louis's just walked through the door.

"Hey," Louis says, and frowns at him. "Are you okay?"

Liam desperately tries to think of what Niall would say, searches his mind and tries really hard, but Louis is still looking at him with a suspicious twist to his mouth and all he can think to do is blurt out, "Yeah, I'm fine, I'm just tired."

Louis's expression doesn't change for a few minutes and Liam wishes he was awake and alert and on the top of his game (like he  _should_  be, because this whole thing is his stupid fault and he's got to sort it out, he's supposed to be the one who fixes everything) so he'd know what to do, but he  _is_  tired and trying to think of the right thing to say just leaves his mind blank. He turns away, pulling the lumpy duvet cover closer around him and wishes he was imagining the touch of Louis's hand on his back.

"Move over, then."

"What?" He tries to roll over to look at Louis but the covers are too tight and all he manages to do is twist his head at an uncomfortable angle. Louis's smiling, in the way he saves for Niall and other people who aren't Liam, and Liam feels even worse, like he's tricking Louis into looking at him like that, because Louis wouldn't smile like that if he knew that Liam was Niall (and the sentence is enough to make Liam's head hurt, if it wasn't doing already).

Louis just grins, bright and open, and tugs the cover out from under Liam. He climbs in next to him, heat radiating from his body, and tucks himself around Liam. "Let's spoon," he says solemnly. "We'll become the first gay boyband, it'll be brilliant."

"I don't think that's a viable marketing strategy, seeing as how Zayn and Harry are straight," Liam says without thinking, and curses himself as soon as he hears how weird it sounds coming from Niall's mouth. Louis doesn't seem to pick up on it, though, just throws his arm over Liam in a hold tight enough to hurt and blows on the back of his neck.

"Zayn and Harry? Are you joking? Have you seen the way they look at each other?"

"I think  _everyone_  looks at Harry like that," Liam says, just as Louis carries on saying, "And besides, you forgot Liam."

His stomach jolts uncomfortably at the mention of his own name, and he feels even more like this is a conversation he shouldn't be having. Liam wonders wildly where Niall is right now, whether he's having a conversation about himself, whether he feels anywhere near as weird and bad and fucked up as Liam does (probably, but not as much -- Niall is aware of how to have a good time and doesn't seem to put the same amount of hours in the day into worrying as Liam does).

"You think Liam's straight?" he says instead, slower than he means to but manages to make it sound light-hearted enough that this is just a joke they're having, speculating on their band members' sexuality.

Louis presses his face into the back of Liam's neck, squashing his nose and breathing out heavily. "You don't?"

"No," Liam says shortly, and he pushes Louis away, disentangling himself from the sheets and standing up. Louis's sprawled on his back, looking up at Liam with an expression he can't quite place, and Liam realises he needs an excuse for leaving -- all he can think of to say is 'I'm tired' or 'I want to go to bed' (his usual excuse would be 'I'm going to do some vocal exercises', but that's not something Niall would really say). Instead he just mutters, "I'm going to see Liam," and leaves as quickly as he can.

-

"You've been spending a lot of time with Liam lately," Louis says, poking Liam in the side during a battle on the Wii, and Liam says, "Yeah, well, so have you."

"I haven't, actually," Louis says instead, and Liam has to glance over at him to check that this is, in fact, going to be a Serious Conversation. "You know he thinks I'm a twat."

"Um," Liam says, because first of all, he obviously  _doesn't_  know that and, second of all, he wasn't aware that Niall knew that. "No, he doesn't."

"Mate, don't lie to me," Louis says, his mouth turned down at a corner as he hits the virtual tennis ball a little harder than Liam thinks the Wii controller is used to. " _I_  think I'm a twat when I'm around him."

"Well, you  _are_  a twat," Liam says automatically, and holds up his hands as Louis turns to glare at him. "Okay, okay, we're being serious, I get it. Um." He hits the tennis ball back without thinking. "How do you know that -- he thinks that?"

"It's pretty obvious," Louis says, and he's definitely hitting the ball harder than he should be. "Although to be honest, you've been acting more like that this week. Maybe you're the twat."

"Maybe," Liam agrees. "Look, I think you're reading too much into this. Liam's shy and all that, right? Maybe he just doesn't know how to act around you."

Louis doesn't say anything, just makes an annoyed noise and hits the ball back before Liam has time to respond. It bounces over the net and Liam's tiny person (what are they called, a Mii?) throws their racket down in frustration. Liam can empathise.

"Liam doesn't think you're a twat," he says instead, setting down his controller carefully. "He's just a bit awkward, that's all."

Louis appears to think about this for a few minutes, then the corners of his mouth quirk up again. "Your  _mum's_  a bit awkward," he says triumphantly, and Liam knows Louis well enough by now to know that he's not getting anymore sense out of him today. If that conversation could count as sense, anyway.

-

The next time he sees Louis is when Louis corners him after a rehearsal. Niall throws him an unreadable look, but Liam figures he's probably laughing. Niall's been laughing at Liam a lot, lately. It's really unfair.

"I don't  _mind_ ," Louis says, although the way he looks slightly unhappy is enough to tell Liam he's lying. "You know, that you're--" he makes a strange hand gesture, "--with Liam. That's." He frowns, eyebrows drawing together, and bursts out, "But I don't get why you didn't  _tell_  me, you twat."

"What?" Liam really can't be arsed with this right now. He's got enough problems trying to figure out exactly what was in that stupid cookie without dealing with Louis's bitch fit over whatever he believes is going on today. "Is this another one of your conspiracy theories, mate?" ('Mate' is a new introduction to Liam's vocabulary; it sounds decent enough in Niall's voice but he's well aware of how ridiculous it sounds in his own.)

" _No_ ," Louis huffs out exasperatedly, and rolls his eyes dramatically enough that Liam has to resist the urge to roll his own. "You're in love with Liam, aren't you?" He narrows his eyes. "I know I piss about in front of the cameras, but I'm not actually stupid."

Liam bites back half a dozen responses -- from  _I didn't think you were_  to  _you're doing a very good impression of it_  -- and settles instead for, "I'm not in love with Liam." He pauses. "I'm _straight_ , Louis."

"Oh," says Louis, and grins. He never seems to be uncomfortable or embarrassed about  _anything_ , Liam thinks sulkily, which really isn't fair. "I had you down for bi, at a push."

"Well, I guess I could make an exception for Harry," Liam says, shrugging one shoulder. "He's pretty enough."

"But Liam  _isn't_?" Louis says, overly dramatic with one hand to his heart, as though Liam's personally insulted him or something.

"Um, well, he's a bit..." Liam says and lets himself trail off, because he's no idea what Niall would say about this. Probably nothing, actually; he'd have laughed it off and put Louis in a headlock or whatever Niall and Louis do when they're acting all matey -- probably pretend to be in love, he should've complimented Louis or something but that would've been  _weird_ , right? Although potentially not as weird at the current situation, after all. "A bit," he says, realising that Louis's still waiting for him to finish his sentence. "You know. Boring."

"'Boring'," Louis repeats and Liam shrugs. He can't even think of what Niall would say because he can't even think of what  _he'd_  say and so he just sort of shrugs again and says, "Er. You know. He's all sensible."

"Well, one of us needs to be," Louis says, in what could pass as a huffy tone of voice if it wasn't so ridiculous. "And also, you shouldn't be rude about fellow band members. That's a new rule. I just made it one."

"Saying Liam's sensible isn't rude," Liam says slowly, thinking that this is probably one of those conversations he'd need therapy for, if he ever thinks or speaks about it again, and Louis just sighs loudly.

"I am going to go talk to Liam and make sure he is not offended by your accusations," he says eventually, after squinting at Liam in a way that is probably supposed to pass as a glare. "I'm going to leave you here alone to think about what you have done."

Liam isn't sure exactly  _what_  he's done -- somehow insult himself? -- but either way he's left alone. Again.

-

Liam searches out Niall the next day, feeling quietly pleased when he finds him in the practice room, working on his vocals.

"Hey," he says, and Niall grins at him. Liam is never going to get used to seeing someone else with his own face.

"Hey, what's up?"

"I might have just, uh -- Louis's a bit pissed off with you," he says, and frowns. "I mean, with Niall. Me. You know what I mean."

"Yeah, sure I do," Niall says easily, slipping an arm around Liam's shoulders as he walks. "And why's that, then?"

"Because I called myself boring," Liam tells him. "Um, I mean. He thinks that you called me boring, I guess. This is way too difficult to talk about. Anyway, sorry. About that."

He expects Niall to comment on it -- it can't just be Liam that finds that to be an overreaction, surely -- but Niall just grins and slaps him on the back. "Alright, don't worry about it, mate."

"Are you sure? I didn't mean to like, you know, mess things up for you." He doesn't know why he's still talking, because he doesn't really  _want_  Niall to be mad at him, but sometimes he just can't stop talking. And not in a good way, either, like a nice chatter-y person, more in a 'oh my God shut up why won't he shut up' kind of way, but -- anyway. 

"Yeah, it's no big deal. Besides, he's technically pissed at you at the minute, right?" Niall leans against the wall, and it's slightly annoying how he manages to make Liam's body look so relaxed.  _Liam_  never manages to make his body look relaxed. "Besides, it's Louis. I'm sure he'll have forgotten about it by now."

"Don't you think -- it was an overreation?" Liam says cautiously but Niall just laughs.

"I'm sure you're thinking about it enough for the both of us," he says, and it's like he's actually saying something else but Liam is too tired to figure it out and besides, he's got enough on his mind right now, so he just nods and says, "Yeah, I'm sure you're right."

He does think about it later, in spite of his efforts not to.

-

Eventually, despite of all Liam's Googling and movie-watching (he even moved onto TV episodes, and it was way too difficult to think up a decent excuse as to why he was watching  _Lizzie Maguire_  all of a sudden), the switch wears off on its own. As in, he wakes up a week to the day they switched and feels -- right. But not completely right, not like -- it's, he's not used to feeling normal. And it's like he's been wearing something super itchy for like a month and now it's gone, but he's  _used_  to the itch, and he's willing to bet that Niall isn't having this problem at all. Niall's probably just happy, but Liam always has to think too much.

Either way, it's nice to be the first up again and to be back in his own bed, even if he does have a moment of panic when Louis wakes up and smiles at him. It's weird, because it's just like the smile that he gave Liam when he was Niall and Liam feels deja vu-y and has to check his reflection in the back of his phone (it's his own, thank goodness). By the time he realises that he should probably smile back at Louis, Louis's already gone back to sleep.

Which is fine. It's probably not like Louis's going to be hanging around with him anymore anyway, now that Liam is Liam again. Things will just go back to how they were and that's a relief, obviously, because that's all Liam wanted. For things to be back to normal. And this means he can actually get some sleep again, instead of staying up late and watching movies (and he feels a little bit guilty that maybe he didn't take care of Niall's body as well as he should've) and he can hear his  _own voice_  when he speaks, which is something that he's always taken for granted before now. Obviously. But it's nice, and it would be stupid of Liam to feel a little bit sad. It would.

He gets dressed quickly and quietly, and slips out to the kitchen. He's a little bit wary of the food now, to be honest, but some cereal can't be weird. And it's not fan-given, so Liam's definitely learned his lesson in that respect. He'll probably be flinching away from the fans for months now, but he'll at least be doing it in his own body and they'll probably just pass it off as him being shy anyway so it's fine, it's fine, everything is fine again.

Besides, it's nice to be eating breakfast with his own hair in his eyes. 

-

Louis slips an arm around Liam, like he has done before, it's nothing new, but what's new is the way that Liam automatically leans back into it. The minute he's done it, he knows it was a mistake but he's spent so long trying to be Niall that maybe he's forgotten how to be  _him_ , at least the him that got all stiff and uncomfortable when Louis touched him (and to be honest, that was probably half the reason that Louis did it). But he can't undo it now, there'd be no point in being all tense and that'd look even  _more_  suspicious, right? So instead Liam just grits his teeth and forces himself not to move, even when he can feel the heat bleeding through from Louis's arm, warm and heavy around his shoulders, and he doesn't look at anyone.

And if it had just been that one time then it wouldn't be so bad, because he could write it off as a, a mistake, but he's just got too used to being around Louis (and why oh why couldn't he have been like this at the  _beginning_ , he thinks miserably, when it wouldn't have been unusual and then maybe Louis would've been more friendly and the whole horrible Niall thing wouldn't even have  _happened_ ) and everytime Louis does normal, stupid things like rest a hand on Liam's back or fling his arms around his waist for the cameras, well, Liam -- reacts normally. Like a normal person would, but not like  _Liam_  normally would.

Louis must be noticing, he's got to be. Although maybe he's not. It is, after all, entirely possible that Liam could be reading too much into it and Louis's never actually noticed whether Liam's comfortable around him or not. 

Liam is beginning to think he spends too much time in his own head.

-

"Vas happenin'?" Zayn says, when he finds Liam alone in the beanbag room, knees drawn up to his chin. He grins at him, dropping down into the beanbag opposite. "You and Louis seem close lately, yeah?"

Liam doesn't answer. He doesn't really know what to say. Zayn rolls his eyes, used to it -- he was always the one Liam was closest to, mainly because he was one of the only ones who seemed halfway sane -- and scooches his beanbag closer. 

"I reckon you need a bit of fun, lad," he continues, leaning forward enough that he can throw an arm around Liam's shoulder and pull him close. "Let's get hammered."

"Okay, first of all, we've got to sing tomorrow," Liam points out, ignoring Zayn's wicked grin. "And second of all, I don't think there's even any alcohol."

"Matt's probably get a stash that he uses to do bodyshots with Aiden," Zayn says, but laughs anyway and lets go of Liam. "You're right though, it'd fuck things up tomorrow." He smiles at Liam, softer, and says, "So what do you reckon of our chances then?"

It's just what Liam needs -- a conversation about something safe that he cares about, and he stretches out as he starts to talk about their song and the arrangement and how and why he thinks people will vote, and who for. He knows that Zayn doesn't really give a shit, leaning against Liam with his eyes closed, but it's still nice and normal, and Liam feels better than he has in weeks.

-

"Okay, you've been weird all week," Louis says, dropping into Liam's lap and wriggling around to get comfortable as though that's perfectly acceptable behaviour (for Louis, it probably is). "What's up?"

There's probably some irony in the fact that Louis only finds it weird when Liam is being himself and not when, say, he was  _in Niall's body for a week_  but either way that's a conversation which Liam isn't going to have, so instead he slips an arm around Louis's waist to keep him from falling off and says, "Nothing. I'm fine."

"You're a liar, is what you are," Louis says, poking a finger into Liam's stomach. "A dirty, dirty liar so c'mon, out with it, you twat."

"Yes, a constant stream of abuse is really going to encourage me to open up to you," Liam says dryly, trying to ignore Louis' blinding grin.

"I knew it!" Louis shuffles a little bit more, wearing his ridiculous onesie, and if Liam didn't know better he'd say that Louis was nervous. But Louis never gets nervous, not like this -- maybe once or twice before performances, getting louder and more obnoxious than usual, even if it is difficult to tell the difference. "Did you know Niall thinks you're gay?" He bats his eyelashes at Liam. "You're such a heartbreaker."

This is a conversation that Liam feels comfortable having in his own body, at least, and so this time he manages a careful, "Well, I am." He shrugs one shoulder. "Niall's not wrong."

"Oh." Louis appears to consider this. "Well, so am I. Bi, I mean. Not gay, otherwise I'd disappoint all my fans." He leers at Liam, over the top and dramatic, and Liam rolls his eyes. He can deal with Louis when he's like this; when Louis knows exactly how he wants to be taken (as a joke), but not when Louis's being serious. It doesn't happen very often, true, but that makes it all the more odd when it does.

"Good for you," Liam says, for lack of any other response, and Louis slips an arm around Liam's neck.

"It is not only good for me, but it is  _also_  good for  _you_ ," he says solemnly, like he's trying to be wise or something, and Liam resists the urge to zip Louis's stupid onesie up over his face. "I come bearing tidings of great joy and stuff, Liam Payne."

"Tidings--" Liam starts to repeat, but Louis slaps his hand over Liam's mouth before he can speak properly.

"Do not interrupt the wisdom!" he says, shuffling around so he's kneeling over Liam. It's an uncomfortable position, true, but after being Niall for a week, Liam's personal boundaries appear to have expanded -- at least where Louis's concerned. "Anyway, Niall says that you're incredibly gay for me and that I should probably tell you that the feeling's mutual. So." He beams at Liam, removing his hand from over Liam's mouth. "That's good, isn't it?"

"I need to tell you something," Liam blurts out, before he can stop himself. Louis sits back on his heels, raising an eyebrow.

"And now is the time for that? Really?" It's not, it's really really not, but there's never really going to be an optimal time and besides, Liam can't just --  _do_  this, because it might even be Niall that Louis likes and he just  _never realised_. And yes, Liam can recognise how ridiculous that sounds, but Louis's pretty ridiculous himself so no one can blame Liam for just wanting to make sure. 

Louis's still waiting, his expression torn between amusement and impatience, and so Liam dredges up some courage from somewhere and says, "So two weeks ago, I was Niall."

"You what?" Louis frowns a little bit. "What do you mean, you were Niall?"

"I mean we accidentally swapped bodies?" Liam says, hating how hopeful he sounds. "So -- I just thought you should know, in case you thought you liked me but it was just, you know. Niall."

Louis appears to give this consideration for all of five minutes before shrugging a shoulder and saying, "No, actually, I'm pretty sure that it's you I like."

"I," Liam says, inarticulately. "You believe me?"

Louis rolls his eyes, flopping down next to Liam and reaching for his hand in the way that means he thinks he's being subtle but really isn't, at all. "Unless you've lost your mind then yeah. I don't really get why you'd make that up, and you were being so weird then. Or I guess Niall was. Or you both were." He makes a face at Liam. "It makes my head hurt thinking about it anyway, so fuck it."

"That's a great attitude," Liam says, in his most deadpan tone of voice, but Louis just squeezes his hand and rolls over to face him.

"Much like my attitude towards your arse."

"What?" Liam says, and then takes a few moments to think about it, and, "Oh." He wrinkles his nose, still staring at the ceiling. "You're ace at ruining the moment, really."

"Aaw, were we having a  _moment_?" Louis says delightedly, and licks Liam's neck -- not even in a romantic way, either. "Are you feeling special?" He pauses, before adding, "Special  _needs_ ," delivered in such a tone that he clearly thinks it a great comeback.

"I think most of the public would have  _you_  down as the special one," Liam says patiently, but he's smiling in spite of himself, especially when Louis props himself up on his elbows and kisses him -- "to shut you up."

"Liam," Louis says after and just smiles at him, wide and bright. It's not the way that Liam wanted Louis to smile at him -- he certainly never smiles at Niall this way -- but in the end, it's even better.


End file.
